


Birthday Parties are the Devil

by happyaspie



Series: Beautiful Boy (Darling Pete) [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: #ShouldHaveListenedToPepper, Adopted Peter Parker, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anything That Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong, Birthday Party, Domestic Fluff, Flash Thompson Being Flash Thompson, Fluff and Humor, Happy Hogan is a Good Bro, Kid Peter Parker, Language, Murphy's Law of Life:, Parent Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, Supportive Pepper Potts, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Swears, Tony Stark is a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22669198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie
Summary: It's Peter's first birthday under his care and Tony wants to do it right.  So after talking the kid into an over the top party, he gets to work planning what is sure to, singularly, become the best day of his son's young life....and then it all goes to hell in a handbasket.Or:Tony quickly learns that hosting children's birthday parties is not his forte.🎈
Relationships: Happy Hogan & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Beautiful Boy (Darling Pete) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1594498
Comments: 49
Kudos: 196





	1. Party Planning (Is a Piece of Cake)

As Tony sat at the kitchen table filling out some paperwork that Peter's school needed for the upcoming school year, he smiled. He fucking _smiled._ Over paperwork. It was ridiculous but there he sat, proudly scratching out Peter's new full name on the top line. Then quickly progressed to the other necessary information, filling in their address and his phone numbers where indicated. However, he paused slightly when he got to the line asking for a date of birth. Not because he didn't know it but because he'd not realized how quickly that date was approaching. In a little less than three weeks, his kid was going to turn eight. "It's almost your birthday, Pete.", he said with mild surprise.

Peter, who was sitting across from him with a pencil and box of crayons, drawing some sort of design for a robot dog, looked up just long enough to say, "I know, Daddy.", and then went back to his paper.

Tony sat there and watched his son, scribble a few notes beside the latest edition to his artwork for several seconds before he spoke again. He'd been expecting a burst of energy to come radiating off of the boy at the mere mention of the upcoming date. As far as he knew, which admittedly wasn't much, kids were supposed to get excited about their birthday. "You don't sound very excited about it.", he finally said with mild confusion. While he knew that this birthday might be a bit harder than others, being the first to be celebrated without his aunt and uncle, he was also determined to make sure it wasn't passed over with grief. He wanted it to be a _good day_. "We need to celebrate, right? Turning eight is a big deal."

"I guess.", Peter distractedly replied but at least he was starting to smile.

"What do you normally do to celebrate your birthday?", Tony continued to probe, expecting to hear stories about cake and ice cream and too many sticky hands running around the Parker's small apartment. He was slightly surprised when that wasn't the case. However, that question had at least been enough to get the kid to put his crayons down and actively participate in the conversation. 

Peter pulled his feet up in the chair so that he could sit on his knees and smiled. "Last year, Ned spent the night and we ate pizza and cake for dinner.", he happy explained and Tony waited a full minute for the rest of the details. Except there weren't any. Apparently that was it. Ned came over for cake.

"No party?", Tony asked incredulously. As shitty as his own childhood had been, at least he could claim he had decent birthday parties. Not that his parents were overly involved in the process, short of hiring people to plan and host it but _he'd had them_. He just couldn't wrap his brain around May and Ben not giving the kid an actual party.

While Tony was trying to sort all of that out in his head, Peter was looking at him in confusion. "It was a party. A Spend the Night Party."

"Yeah, but what about a big party? Don't kids your age have big parties with lots of friends?", Tony asked in return but Peter just shrugged his shoulders.

"Last year, Khushi had a party at the skating rink and that was fun, and when Flash turned eight he had a really, _really_ big party at the aquarium with face painting and everything.", Peter replied before dropping his crayons in favor of bringing his finger up to his mouth. "He said he did anyway. I wasn't invited and sometimes he tells lies.", he added with sadness in his tone and Tony wasn't sure if it was because he'd not been invited or because this Flash kid was a liar. He opted not to question it at the moment. From what he could figure, Flash was sort of the class asshole. 

"What about you? Have you ever had a big party?", Tony asked as he pulled the kid's finger out of his mouth and gestured towards the sink. Peter shook his head and got up to wash his hands. "Never?", Tony asked, thinking that maybe he'd not been clear enough but it seemed he had been as Peter again shook his head in the negative.

"Parties cost a lot of money, Daddy.", Peter said with so much conviction that it made Tony laugh. The kid was always telling him that things cost money or were only meant for special occasions. Ben and May really had done a good job raising him to be money conscientious. Even knowing full well that Tony could by him a small island if he asked for it, he was still quick to point those kinds of things out. It didn't stop him from acceting things that were offered to him, though and for that Tony was grateful. He enjoyed spoiling the kid.

"Don't you want a big party?", Tony asked but all Peter did was shrug his shoulders again. "Come on, kiddo, It might be fun. We could pull all the stops. Giant cake, balloons, entertainment... whatever you want.", he promised with a broad wave of his hand. He was already considering what kind of places he knew of that would host a kid's party... because he sure as shit wasn't having it at _his house_....when Peter cut in with his next question.

"Could Ned spend the night after?", the boy asked with a hopeful look. 

Still slightly traumatized by the three-hour playdate Tony took in a deep breath and nodded his head. "Sure. Why not?", he waveringly replied. He wasn't sure he wanted to have two overly-hyper children in his care for nearly twenty-four hours but he would do it if that meant that the kid would allow him to throw him a _real_ party. In fact, he wanted to throw a party so big that it would singularly become the best day of his son's young life. "After the party, Ned could spend the night."

Peter took a moment to think it over and Tony watched as his face scrunched up in thought. He loved the way the child's nose twisted and his eyebrows came together whenever he was concentrating on a particularly difficult problem. He also found it amusing that the question of whether or not he wanted a birthday party would require such a consolidated effort but eventually the child came to his conclusion and his face fell back into a relaxed smile. "Then I guess a big party might be fun." 

It wasn't until he was talking to Pepper about it over lunch the next day that he realized what exactly he'd signed up for. She had _helpfully_ pointed out exactly how many things actually went into planning a fucking party _before_ dropping the biggest bomb on him. "Tony, you do realize that with that short of notice everywhere you've mentioned is going to be booked up already, right?", she pointed out making him frown.

"Why would I know that, Pepper?", he asked in mild annoyance. It wasn't like he'd ever planned anything before. He'd thrown things together but not _planned_ them. He had no idea what sort of deadlines were required to make party reservations. "I'll figure it out though. All I have to do--"

"--is hire a party planner. You can use the same guy I use to plan all of the Stark Industries Galas. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help you out.", Pepper said as she dug through her bag and pulled out a card for Tony to snatch out of her hand.

"Phillipe, you want me to hire a guy named, Phillipe to plan my son's eighth birthday party.", Tony blandly replied before unceremoniously dropping the card back down onto the desk.

Pepper rolled her eyes and put the card back into her purse. "I want you to hire _someone_ to plan your son's eighth birthday party and I think Phillipe would do a good job." 

"No way. I'm his dad and I'm doing this. I don't need someone else put this together for me. I'll figure it out, myself.", Tony firmly asserted. He wasn't going to be like his dad. He was going to be active and present in his son's life. "It can't be that hard... _I have money._ "

Tony quickly learned that having money isn't actually enough to get any of the local pools to cancel someone else's party in favor of yours. He also learned that demanding the names and numbers of the people who had taken up all of the best party slots, so that you can pay them to have their party somewhere else, gets you hung up on. The pool was a no-go. So was the aquarium, the zoo, the trampoline park and every goddamned arcade within a twenty-mile radius. Even the local Chuck E. Cheese was fucking booked for the entire month. Then, just as he was starting to think he might have to actually hold the party in the penthouse he got a return phone call from the city parks and recreation coordinator saying that they had one multi-purpose building available on the date that he'd requested. It was dull and small but it had running water, a kitchen, and maybe more importantly... a small playground beside it. It was nothing a few balloons and streamers couldn't brighten up. He'd make it work. 

The next thing on his list was much easier. All he needed to do was to sit down with Peter and compile a guest list. After multiple reassurances that he could invite as many people as he wanted to the kid started to list off names, starting with Ned, as if Tony hadn't already added him to the list. From there the names came easily. "Is this it?", Tony asked when the names stopped flowing readily from his son's mouth. "Ned, Domonic, Quinn, Khushi, Miguel, Harper, Shae, Cindy, Toby, Betty, Alexander, Odochi, Mathew, Armon, Jacob, Carl, and Kai, who's last name you don't remember. Sound right?", he further questioned, just to be sure he'd not missed a name in the mix. 

Peter nodded his head, gave a pensive look and then sighed. "...and Flash Thompson."

"The jerk that picks on you and didn't invite you to his party?", Tony asked with an eyebrow quirked. He was certain there couldn't possibly be two kids with a name as stupid as 'Flash' but he wanted to clarify. 

Peter shrugged his shoulders and got up out of his chair to go lean on Tony where he'd been sitting across from him at the table. "Just because he's mean to me doesn't mean that I have to be mean too.", he reasoned and Tony sighed because his kid was too _nice_ for his own wellbeing. It was something he legitimately worried about sometimes. 

"No... but you also don't have to invite him to your party if you don't want him there.", Tony said seriously as he pulled the boy up onto his lap and held him close.

"It's okay Daddy. He probably won't come anyway.", Peter assured but Tony didn't answer right away. Instead, he rested his chin on top of his kid's head and tried to decide what he wanted to handle the situation. He very much wanted to put his foot down and say no way in fucking hell that he was going to send an invitation to the kid who had made _his kid_ cry on more than one occasion but he didn't. Peter had a good heart and he didn't want to discourage that. Then he decided, on the spot, that if the little shit actually did show up and started acting like an asshat, he would happily send him out the door or possibly the country, he'd have to see what he could do.

"Alright... I'll add Flash to the list.", Tony eventually stated before kissing his boy on the head and setting him back down onto the floor. "I'm going to go track down some addresses, I'll be in my office if you need me."

Getting all of the addresses took damn near for-fucking-ever but the worst part was, that _it hadn't even had to._.. After two hours of having JARVIS track a handful of the kids down, he'd called Ned's mother to ask her if she knew Kai's elusive last name only to be reminded that they'd all been given a goddamned class directory at the end of the school year. One that had every single kid's name, address and phone number listed by grade, in alphabetical order. After that, he was able to make short work of the envelopes and vowed to never tell a singular soul that he'd spent hours searching for information that he'd had tucked away in his desk the whole damn time.

Even with the little hiccup, Tony was pretty sure he had everything under control. He'd gone online and purchased a bunch of brightly colored decorations, ordered several bouquets of balloons and party favors. He'd also been able to talk the Stark Industries staff cafeteria manager into spending a weekend playing caterer after he'd been unable to secure any other food services with such sort notice. It was going to cost him out the ass but it wasn't like he couldn't afford it. Besides, Peter loved the cafeteria's chicken strips and macaroni and cheese. There was that.

The next real snag came when he started looking for some kind of performance. Pepper had told him that there was no way he was going to find anyone of value with a two-week notice in the middle of the summer but he was determined to prove her wrong. Several phone calls later he'd managed to hire the best magician in the business by simply offering to pay the children's entertainment service three times their listed fee to have him over anyone else. Then, just for good measure, looked up and hired a clown as well. By the time he was done he was pretty sure he'd earned a fucking father of the year award. He'd done it all himself without the help of _Phillipe_ or anyone else. Or that's what he thought until a week later when his kid asked him about the cake and all he could think was a long string of ' _shit, fucking fuck, fuck, fuck.._.', because he'd completely forgotten about that part. He wasn't going to say that, though. Especially with Nora standing _right there_ waiting for an answer right alongside Peter. "I'm still looking for the perfect bakery to make it for you.", he said feeling only slightly guilty about how easily the lie had slipped past his teeth.

"Why don't you make it, Daddy?", Peter innocently inquired.

"Because then we would have to drive it to the park and I don't want it to topple over on the way there.", Tony lied again. Outside of premade cookies and frozen pizza, he didn't fucking bake. He cooked. He cooked often but baking required a completely different set of skills... and patience, all of which he lacked. He was sure that hiring someone else was the way to go here. _He was sure of it._ "If we hire a bakery they'll deliver it safe and sound.", he reasoned and Peter seemed to accept that because he nodded his head and turned to go back to the table where he and Nora had been playing Candy Land.

It took for-fucking-ever to find a bakery that would be able to accommodate the date and delivery and, again, he was left baffled by how many things money _couldn't_ buy. It wasn't until he'd called the small family-owned bakery that Nora had recommended that he'd finally been able to get something put together. It wouldn't be much more than a nicely decorated sheet cake but he wouldn't have to pick ut up and that was enough for him because there were only four fucking days left until the party.

Once that was done, he was pretty sure he had it all under control. He had a place, decorations, food, invitations, and _a goddamned cake._ All that was left to do was to go through the RSVP's that had come in. It was unsurprising that the replies started coming in nearly instantly. Despite the fact that Peter wasn't a popular kid, he _was_ well-liked. He refused to allow himself to think that maybe, just maybe some of the responses were there just because the parents had seen the name 'Stark' on the invitation. That is until he saw that Flash Thompson's attendance had been confirmed. He'd honest to god thought that kid wouldn't come and was probably more fucking annoyed about that then he should have been but he kept his mouth shut about it. The closer they got to the date, the more excited Peter was becoming and he wasn't going to let anything get in the way of that.

In fact, by the time he was trying to get Peter to get ready for bed on the night before the party, he wasn't convinced the kid would sleep. "Pete. You have got to wind it down. It's bedtime and you need to go to sleep.", he firmly asserted as his son continued to bounce on his knees at the end of the bed.

"I'm too excited to sleep.", Peter replied with a near-hysterical laugh that made Tony chuckle. He was really glad the kid had finally warmed up the idea of having such a large get-together. That didn't mean he wasn't eager for him to lay the fuck down and go to sleep. The party was to start at eleven and from that point until three he would be surrounded by up to twenty-two overly-excited, hyper as fuck children. More so, at the end of the party, he'd be taking an _extra_ kid home with him. Not that any of that supremely bothered him. He was already mentally prepared for some amount of craziness and he figured could deal with it for that amount of time. Besides, Happy would be there and Pepper had scheduled her business trip so that she would be home just in time to be there as well. It was one day and it was _for Peter._ Though, even with that in mind, he was looking forward to having a few hours of quiet before all the _noise_ began.

Then, with a very deep breath, Tony tried to push the image of himself tying his son to the fucking bed with the sheets out of his mind and gently lay him down under the covers, still giggling. "What are you most excited about?", he asked hoping that the question would get the kid to do a little more thinking and a lot less... vibrating.

"Ned's gonna spend the night and we'll get to play with my new stuff!", Peter happily replied and Tony had to fight back the feeling of indignance that swelled up in his chest. He'd meticulously planned out what would be, anyone under the age of ten's dream party and his kid was excited to have his friend come over. He wanted to make some sort of annoyed quip but he didn't. He just rolled his eyes and used his child's answer to his benefit. 

"You're going to be too tired to play with anything if you don't lay down and go to sleep.", he said and that seemed to do that trick because the boy was finally at least _trying_ to lay still. So, he took that opportunity to lean over and kiss him on the head before he could pop back up again. "Good-night, Buddy. I love you."

"I love you too.", Peter chirped and then rolled over onto his side, with his rabbit tucked tightly under his chin. 

After getting Peter settled down _and_ asleep, Tony called and talked to Pepper for a while before doing some work in his office. Though eventually, he decided that he should probably go to bed a little early. Of course, by early, he meant before one in the fucking morning but still, it was earlier by his standards. Though he'd not actually expected to fall asleep as quickly as he had. He'd sort of imagined that his head would want to fill him in on everything that could possibly go wrong the next day but it didn't. Instead, he was on his side snoring within minutes only to be abruptly woken up, what felt like a short time later, by a little body diving on top of his.

"Daddy! Wake up! It's my birthday!", Peter shouted as he hopped up onto the bed and enthusiastically crawled over his dad.

Having been awoken with a start, Tony groaned. "Why are you up so early? You're never up this early.", he mumbled as he rolled over onto his back and allowed his son to climb on top of him.

"It's almost nine.", Peter replied causing Tony's eyes to snap open. 

"Huh?", he questioned as he looked towards the clock on his bedside table for verification. He could have sworn he'd asked JARVIS To wake him up at eight but clearly he hadn't. That left very little time for him to get himself _and a child_ ready to walk out the door. "Ah, crap!", he said mostly to himself before beginning to rattle off a list of things that needed to be accomplished in order to get out of the fucking house on time. " Come on, kiddo. We need to start getting ready. You need a bath and I need to make sure Happy has the car all packed up. I also need to call Pepper and--"

"--What about breakfast?", Peter asked from the foot of the bed where he was watching his father pace.

"What about breakfast?", Tony asked in confusion. "We're not out of cereal are we?"

"No pancakes?", Peter asked sadly and Tony wasn't sure what to make of that. He wasn't even sure he knew how to make pancakes. Typically if he made breakfast it was eggs or oatmeal and typically only on weekdays. On weekends, they tended to sleep in and Peter would make his own breakfast. It seemed like the request had come out of the fucking blue but he didn't have time to ask him about it. They needed to get moving. 

"We don't have time for pancakes this morning, Buddy. Just eat some cereal and go take a bath.", he finally replied. The way his son's frown deepened at the response didn't go unmissed and he threw his hand up in questions. "What is it, kiddo?"

"Aunt May always made me special pancakes with sprinkles on my birthday.", Peter said and all of a sudden Tony felt like shit. He didn't know why he felt like shit, it wasn't like he knew any of that. The kid hadn't mentioned one thing about it. Then again, on the day he'd asked the boy how he typically celebrated his birthday he'd not really pressed for much more once the subject of parties had come up. So, he supposed that meant that it was at least partially his own dame fault that he didn't know. 

"How about I make you and Ned special birthday pancakes with sprinkles tomorrow morning?", he offered with a half-hearted smile. He didn't know how well they would turn out but he could damn well try... or order some. He was pretty sure he could get pancakes delivered but before he could decide, Peter was sliding off the end of the bed.

"Okay. That sounds good too", Peter replied with a smile and then headed out the door to go eat breakfast and Tony got into the shower, already knowing it was going to be a very long-ass fucking day.


	2. It's His Party (And I'll Cry if I Want To)

As it were, they ended up getting into the car only a few minutes past what had been planned. They probably would have been even later than that but Happy had come up to see what was taking so damn long and had been able to take over making sure Peter was actually getting ready to go instead of playing while Tony finished dressing. That meant getting to the park with very little time to spare. By the time they had found the small multi-use building and started unloading the car they only had about thirty fucking minutes to get the place set up and decorated.

While happy collected the large box full of supplies, Tony opened Peter's car door and then walked towards the building. After the morning they'd had he was worried it would be locked or some shit like that but it was fine. The door swung open easily and he stepped inside. "What's that smell?", he asked as he wrinkled up his nose in mild disgust.

"Smells like mildew.", Happy replied from behind him as they walked a little further into the large room. 

"...and is that paint actually _peeling off the wall_?", Tony asked as he looked at the far side of the room where the folding tables and chairs were haphazardly stacked up.

"Seems to be... where do you want me to put all this stuff? It's heavy.", Happy groused as he shifted the weight of the box from one arm to the other. 

"Uh... I guess, anywhere.", Tony said with a shake of his head. The place looked like shit but he had a huge box of decorations and all he could do was hope that those would be enough to make up for the lackluster environment. It was then that he realized that his kid wasn't in the room with him and he sighed. "Pete! Come on, kiddo. Stay with us.", he called out the door where he'd found his kid eyeing the nearby playground. 

"...but it stinks in there.", Peter complained and all Tony could do was close his eyes and count to fucking ten. 

"Happy can you run go get some--", Tony started with the intention of asking the man to go buy something to take care of the smell but he didn't need to finish his thought. His friend was already way ahead of him.

"--I'm on it, Boss.", Happy chuckled before walking over towards Peter and taking him by the hand. "You want to come with me to the store, Birthday Boy?", he asked and when Peter readily nodded his head he started towards the car. "We'll be back in ten.", he called over his shoulder as they walked out. 

Tony hadn't gotten five minutes into taping and pinning up the colorful decorations when he felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. A quick glance showed Pepper's smiling face popping up on his screen and he immediately answered. "Hey Pep! What's up. You about here? The caterer should be arriving any minutes and I was just about to start decorating.", he happily rambled. While things hadn't been going as perfectly as he'd hoped, the room was already starting to look better, Happy would be back in no time with the air fresheners and Pepper was due to meet them there by the time the whole shebang started. However, his smile went to a frown rather quickly as she began to explain that her flight had been delayed and she wouldn't be able to be there for fucking hours. 

"What! You can't leave me here alone with two dozen screaming children!", he strained into the phone. He'd been counting on her presence and now it looked as though he was going to be shit out of luck. Then to make matter worse she started _laughing_ at him.

"You won't be alone. Happy will be there with you. Now, make sure to tell Peter I'll get there as soon as I can.", she said and Tony couldn't even argue. Happy would be there and he supposed that was something. That wasn't all there was to it, though. She'd been gone for days, he missed her and had been looking forward to her returning. 

"I'll let him know. Have a safe flight.", he replied with a sigh, ending the call at the exact moment the familiar cafeteria manager turned caterer walked through the door. "Hey. The kitchen's over here.", he said as gestured towards the surprisingly clean and well-kept kitchen area. Though the woman hadn't gotten three steps into the room before pausing.

"Why does it smell in here?", she asked and Tony threw his head back and tried his fucking hardest not to scream. 

Luckily, Happy and Peter were back shortly after that, running around the room spraying several aerosol cans of some flora scented air freshener though it didn't seem to help nearly as much as any of them had hoped. "Great we went from it smelling like mildew to smelling like mildew that had potpourri vomited all over it", Tony grumbled as he opened one of the windows in an attempt to air out the room a bit more. 

"Could be worse.", Happy suggested with a shrug of his shoulders and at that same moment, some of the tape on the wall came loose causing one of the streamers to flutter down towards the floor. Tony glared, Peter giggled and Happy just sighed. "Yeah, let me get that."

Several minutes' worth of reinforcing tape later, Tony stood back and looked over the room with a smile. It wasn't great but it wasn't _horrible._ "Well, Pete. What do you think? Your friends will be here soon. You like the decorations?", he asked as he dropped a hand down onto his son's shoulders. Peter said that he did and for a few seconds they all stood there taking it all in. Then out of nowhere, there was a loud rumble that practically shook the small building. "Was that thunder? Please for the love of God, tell me that wasn't thunder."

Happy looked out the window at the progressively darkening sky and cringed. "Maybe it'll pass quickly.", he said with what sounded like no actual hope.

"Or maybe it's Thor!", Peter eagerly suggested annoying Tony more than it probably should have. Then just as Ned and his step-father walked through the door, the fucking bottom fell out it looked like they'd been hit by a goddamned monsoon. 

From there all of the other kids started piling in and Tony started to panic. The plan had been for the kid to play on the fucking playground until lunch was ready. As such, the only game he'd purchased was a generic pin the tail on the donkey game and only because Peter had asked for. With that being the only option he tried to get it set up but only about four of the kids in attendance gave a flying rat's ass about it. The rest of them seemed perfectly fucking content to run full speed around the room trying to knock each other over, while happy called after them to slow down. As he tried to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do, he looked around the room at the few parents who had stayed behind with their kids and shook his head. Every single one of them was huddled together in a corner talking amongst themselves. Not one of them paying one lick of attention to their own damn child.

After what felt like damn near forever, the caterer started placing food out and Tony called the kids attention to that. He was sure that feeding them would get them to shut up for at least ten goddamned minutes but that was not the case. Between some little girl shouting that she was allergic to peanuts every forty-five fucking seconds despite the fact that she _and her mother_ had been assured that there were no peanuts anywhere in the building, and the asshole Flash kid flipping the lights on and off for shits and giggles, he was sure he was about to lose his mind. Then, as if by some miracle sent down from heaven to save his sanity, a bright yellow car pulled up and clown came stumbling out of it.

"Look, Pete. The clown's here.", he said to his son who was happily shoving spoonful after spoonful of macaroni and cheese into his mouth. "Smaller bites, Buddy.", he added when the boy started coughing after putting too much in his mouth. Then in the time, it took him to go grab his kid another can of lemon-lime soda from the cooler and bring it back to the table, he realized the clown had never made it into the room. Happy seemed to have him cornered by the door. "What's going on over here?", he asked once he was sure his kid wasn't going to choke to death and had crossed the room.

"He's drunk, Tony.", Happy said as he continued to try and prevent the clown, who was adamantly insisting that he _wasn't drunk_ from entering the room. "Say's he only had two he must some doozies because he reeks of alcohol.", he added while continuing to stand between the man and the majority of the guests. 

"Son of Bitch.", Tony whined under his breath because that fucking clown was supposed to be his savior in red shining shoes. Now he was going to have to continue to watch all of the little shits run around yelling at each other until the magician got there in another hour. He didn't have the luxury of peace and fucking quiet to decide how he was going to do that because the damn clown was still arguing with Happy, so he snapped. "Look, Bozo, I get it, you think you're a-okay to do your little... _whatever the fuck it is that clowns do at kid's parties_ but you're not coming in here like that.", he shouted and was two seconds from picking the guy up by the front of his brightly colored shirt to toss him out the door when Happy grabbed his arm.

"I've got him, Tony. Already called the authorities--", his friend said which immediately set the clown off into a rage of _'Why the Hell would you call the cops!_ ' "--Because I can't let you drive off like this! You'll kill somebody", Happy snapped back before looking over his shoulder to where Tony was gesturing for his son to stay where he was. "Go hang out with your kid." 

With one more glare at the clown and a quick nod towards Happy Tony was joining Peter where he was still sitting at the table laughing with his friends. "Hey, kiddo, what's up?"

"Can I open presents now?", Peter asked and after some thought Tony decided that maybe that would be a good way to kill the next hour. That and cleaning up a bit because his son was covered in grease and cheese. So after sending as many kids as he could manage to wrangle off to wash their hands and faces in the two small bathrooms the facility provided he started towards the gift table and then... his phone rang.

In his utter excitement that _maybe_ it was Pepper and she was going to get there earlier than she thought she would, Tony answered without ever look at the caller ID and was severely disappointed. Rather than being his girlfriend calling to say that she was minutes away from saving his ass, it was the Children's Entertainment Company calling to shatter every single one of his hopes and dreams. Apparently the amazing magician he'd hired with the promise of buckets of money had fallen the night before, broken his arm and wasn't going to able to perform. "For the love of Christ, please tell me you have _something available_ for me. I'll take anything at this point. Even a fucking dancing poodle would be amazing.", he strained but despite his words, he was somewhat unimpressed with his options. They could send him a puppeteer that typically worked toddler parties or the apprentice, to the magician who couldn't come, who could perform a few tricks and knew how to make balloon sculptures. "Just send me the apprentice.", he abruptly decided because there was no way a bunch of seven to nine-year-olds were going to sit down and watch puppets perform Mary Had a Fucking Lamb. Then, suddenly, all thoughts of drunk clowns, injured magicians, and shoddy replacements left his mind as he watched Peter skip back into the room with several kids, including Ned, behind him. 

"Can we please do presents _now_?", Peter asked followed by a chorus of ' _Can we_ ' and ' _please_ ' from behind him. Tony smiled and followed the overly excited group towards the gift table where he pulled out his phone so that he could snap a few pictures. Something he'd not really done much of since the party had begun. Though that task became difficult when he, realized that Happy was still with the inebriated clown, leaving his as the only adult doing anything to manage the kids. The current problem being that they kept crowding so closely around Peter and his gifts that he could even _see him,_ let alone take his picture. Another glance towards the obviously un-fucking-helpful parents later, he picked his small son up and set him on top of one of the table so the group of kids surrounding him were, at least, no longer blocking his smile. 

It took a maximum of twenty fucking minutes for Peter to rip through the paper of every single gift on the table. He'd opened everything from elaborate snap circuits to lego sets and was girning ear to ear as his friends all tried to grab ahold of his new things to examine them. Though, Tony drew the line when Flash, in particular, started trying actually open the numerous boxes up and tried to jump in before the park's small building could be flooded with various lego bricks. Thankfully by then, Happy had ushered the clown off in a police car and was able to help pack up the multitude of toys. "How much longer", Tony whined as the children began to once again scatter around the room.

Happy looked down at his watch and sighed. "Two more hours, Boss."

"Fan-fucking-tastic", Tony replied before going back to following his son around the chaos. 

It wasn't more than twenty minutes after that when the entertainment arrived. The guy looked to be no older than nineteen and seemed awfully timid to be working with kids. Tony watched him spend five minutes attempting to raise his voice enough to get the group's attention before he stepped in to do it himself. He eventually managed to pull enough chairs into the corner of the room for all of the guests to sit the fuck down but it didn't last. Between the poor young man's stuttering and slightly repetitive card tricks, half the kids lost interest within five minutes' time. It wasn't until the man gave up and started to pull out his balloons that the kids started to pay him any mind. 

Peter went first and had a crazy twisty looking hat made for himself but outside of that, it seemed that the main attraction was the creation of balloon swords. That led to the creation of several, _less than calm,_ games ranging from warrior princesses to gangly pirates and the room went into absolute disarray. There were balloon popping, kids crying, parents demanding that their little darling's sword be replaced and just a lot of yelling in general. Even Ned and Peter had found a corner of the room to play 'Star Wars' in so it wasn't like he could say too much. All he could do was cover his ears and pray for time to pass more quickly.

Then, it occurred to him that he still had a cake to serve and with that in mind, he started to gather the already worked up kids to herd them back at the tables. Beyond that, it should have been easy. Bring out the cake, light the candles, sing the stupid song and then stuff the little shits full of sugar so that they would stop roughhousing five fucking minutes. The problem was that by the time he had the cake balanced in his hands one of the many goddamned balloon swords popped right under his foot causing him to shift his balance and steal his attention. That, in turn, led to the entire cake sliding precariously across the board it was on and before Tony could even register that that was happening it was already hitting the goddamn-fucking floor. "You have _got_ to be shitting me!", he shouted in frustration as several kids, _including his own_ , began to giggle that he'd said 'a bad word'. _Oh, if they only knew..._

Glancing around the room he located a singular strawberry left on the fruit tray and placed it on a plate. The plan was to stick a candle in it so that his kid would have _something_ to make a wish on but then Happy, as always, came to the rescue with a pack of Twinkies he'd had in his car. They dimmed the lights and lit the candle that was stuck right in the middle of the partially squashed, completely unimpressive, factory manufactured cake and sang 'Happy Birthday'. Then as his son smiled up at him with glee he leaned in and whispered a quiet, "Just blow out the stupid candle so we can be done with this." It probably wasn't the most sentimental thing that he could have said at the moment but he was completely _done_ and there was still a little over an hour to go.

Following that, there were several minutes where all of the other kids were whining that they wanted a twinkie too but of course, there weren't any. Then just as he was about to throw his goddamned four-month sobriety coin out the goddamned window and demand that Happy to go buy him a bottle of... fucking anything, he heard his son squeal in delight. 

"Pepper! Daddy look! It's Pepper!", Peter shouted as he ran across the room towards the door where Pepper was indeed entering the room.

"Hey, Peter. Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!", Pepper said, leaning down to kiss him on the forehead before looking around the room with amusement. "What is going on here?"

"Chaos. Complete and total Chaos.", Tony replied without pause. "Children's parties are the devil and these...", he said gesturing to the majority of the children in the room. "...are his spawn. I swear to God."

Pepper laughed and shook her head before turning her attention back to Peter who appeared to be unfazed by the disorder that had taken over the room. "Well, Peter I see you already opened all of your gifts but I have one for you too. Would you like to open it now?", he asked and Peter grinned.

"Can I, Daddy?", Peter asked and the second Tony gave him permission, the paper was ripped away to reveal an unabridged copy of The Little Prince with pop-up pictures. "Oh, wow... this is so cool... Look, Daddy, the pictures come right out of the book!", he said as he slowly opened up a page that revealed a large twisted tree. "Thank you, Pepper!" 

"You're welcome, Sweetie.", Pepper replied as Tony looked on with affinity. 

"Daddy? Can you read this to me tonight?", Peter asked as he held the large book to his chest and took ahold of his dad's hand.

"That's a long story, Buddy. It'll take us a few days to read that one all the way through.", Tony replied knowingly. That particular story was somewhat familiar to him. While his dad hadn't been a fan of books that were anything but factual, his mother had introduced that story to him at some point. He couldn't remember the details but he remembered that he'd enjoyed listening to her read it to him.

Those words seemed to give Pepper an idea as she looked around the room and then gently took the book out of Peter's hands. "You know, what we could do? I could sit down and read some of it to your friends. Do you think they would like that?", she asked and Tony wanted to laugh. There was no way those kids were going to sit down and listen to a story. They barely sat down to fucking eat.

"I don't know... Maybe.", Peter replied unsurely. 

"Would you like for me to try?", Pepper asked and when Peter nodded his head she started towards the corner where the chairs had been set up for the mediocre magic show and called attention to herself. Surprisingly enough, most of the kids came over when she called, though that could have been because Peter was already excitedly telling them about the book with the pop-up pictures.

For a few minutes, Pepper casually flipped through the pages to show off the various scenes as she urged the group to sit down in chairs. At one point, the asshole kid, Flash had tried to grab the book out of her hands but, even then, she was nothing but calm as she told him not to and Tony was shocked to see that he'd listened to her. Though when the noise didn't die down, Peter eventually got frustrated enough to say something himself. "Just be quiet, everybody! I want to hear my new book!", he'd shouted with annoyance and Tony wasn't sure if he was supposed to be proud of that or not but it did make everyone suddenly grow quiet enough for Pepper to begin to read.

_"Once when I was six years old, I saw a picture in a book..."_ , Pepper read out loud and the quiet murmuring quickly turned into near silence, leaving only her voice to fill the room. All Tony could do was stare at her with his mouth gaping open. He'd been trying to get those damn kids to sit down and shut up for hours and all she had to do was read a goddamned book. That made him feel both annoyed as shit and grateful beyond measure because a glance at his watch revealed that the worst of it was about to be over and parents would soon be arriving to take their hellions home.

The second the last child left, Tony, Happy and Pepper all started working together to clean up the room, while Peter and Ned continued to carefully look through the new book. "I'm telling you, it was a complete disaster. I will--", Tony started as he took his pent up aggravation out on the streamers that had been solidly taped to the wall.

"--Peter looks happy.", Pepper interjected and Tony sighed because _he did look happy_. He'd looked happy for the entire day. It was as if he didn't even notice the bullshit that had been taking place. He didn't even flinch when his cake ended up on the floor... _he'd laughed_... He'd been singularly focused on goofing off with his classmates.

"Yeah, he does.", he finally conceded after watching Peter and Ned set the book aside in favor of crawling across the chairs that were still lined up in the corner.

Pepper smiled and Pattered Tony lovingly on the back. "Then I guess it wasn't a complete disaster.", she whispered before kissing him gently on the cheek.

"It was pretty bad, though....", Happy forced in with a grumble that made both Pepper and Tony both laugh. There was no real way to deny that. _It had been bad_. Sure, Peter was happy but that wasn't the same thing. All of that planning and it seemed that _nothing_ had gone right.

"Hmm. Maybe next you should just hire Phillipe...", Pepper playfully suggested and Tony scoffed. Though he'd already thought of that several times throughout the day. He just wasn't going to _tell her that._

Twenty long minutes later, Tony was in the front seat beside Happy as Peter and Ned sat in the back chattering. They hadn't gotten too terribly far before he remembered the promise he'd made to Peter that morning and shook his head. "Hey, Happy? Can you do me a favor and stop at the store? I need a box pancake mix and some sprinkles...", he sighed out as Happy looked over at him with mirth. "What are you looking at?", he responded through squinted eyes. 

"Nothing, Boss.", Happy replied with a laugh before bringing his eyes back to the road. "Just trying to decide which store to shop at..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to end this story here, with just two chapters but then I thought to myself, 'Self, people are going to ask you about that sleepover....', and thus, a third chapter was born.
> 
> Also... I asked my husband what his favorite part of this chapter was and he said that it was the fact that Happy just keeps a pack of shitty snack cakes in the car... Lol.


	3. At The End of the Day (We're Happy)

A quick trip to the store later and Tony was walking into the penthouse with two excitable boys in tow, each with an armload of new, unboxed toys that were unceremoniously dropped onto the living room floor. "Why don't you take those to your room?", Tony asked because he's sort of assume the two boys would play in there, giving him a couple of hours of reprieve before he had to call them out to feed them.

"...because we want to play with them.", Peter explained with a confused frown and it took Tony entirely too long to realize it was because, more often than not, the kid carried his toys into the large open room to play. When he did play in his room it was in short spurts. At first, he'd assumed it had more to do with his separation anxiety than anything else but that had gotten much better over the past couple of months. It was only recently that he realized the kid just preferred to play in the larger, open space. 

Not willing to interrupt his kid's usual routine and risk upsetting him on his birthday, Tony sighed. "Well, how about you put away the ones you aren't going to play with right away then. You can't possibly put together four snap circuits and six lego sets all at a time.", he suggested and listened as the two boys chattered about what they wanted to do first. Of course, there was no agreement, mean that the chatter soon became a mild argument. 

Reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose, Tony took a deep fucking breath. He'd already listened to enough childish arguments in the last few hours to last him a goddamned lifetime. "Boys!", he half-shouted causing both heads to snap in his direction. "If you can't agree, then I'll find you something to do and I can promise you that you will not like what I pick.", he said with a mild glare but it was absolutely an empty threat. He wasn't going to join the argument by insisting that they do something they had no interest in. That would just be fucking idiotic. However, Peter seemed to believe him because his eyes had gone wide.

"Like what?", Peter asked and all of a sudden Tony was stuck trying to come up with some boring as shit to suggest as a follow-through. He'd not planned to be called out on the threat.

A quick glance around the room and Tony was back to looking at the boys with authority. "Like organizing that bookshelf over there... alphabetically.", he casually stated, knowing how much Peter loathed putting words in 'ABC order'. That was the one homework assignment that the kid would fight him on every damn time and when the boy glared at him he didn't feel the least bit bad about it. Mostly because Ned had become suddenly very agreeable.

After a few hours of sitting in the room listening to the two boys talk unnecessarily loudly to each other. He suggested that they sit down and watch a movie. Of course, they chose Star Wars. If it was Peter's choice, it was fucking always Star Wars but the point was, they agreed and settled down on the couch together as he had JARVIS start the film. Then as soon as it looked as though it was safe for him to leave the room, he left to go lay across his bed for ten fucking minutes in order to soak up some silence. Though that silence only lasted about six before he heard something crash to the floor down the hall followed by JARVIS informing him that the boys were uninjured but the situation required his assistance. "I've got it, J.", he mumbled but rather than jumping right up, he lay there for a few seconds waiting for the inevitable crying to start. _'One, two, three, four... there it is._ ', he thought to himself as the familiar sound of his son's remorseful tears came flooding into his room. It was then that he finally got up and went to go check on the damage. 

The second he walked into the room he was struck by two things. One, that Ned was standing in the middle of the room wielding a plastic lightsaber while Peter was sitting on the floor with a matching one... and two, that the vase he kept on the mantel was shattered on the hearth of the fireplace. "Alright, boys, get to the couch.", he instructed with and got to work sweeping up the mess while his son continued to sniffle int he background.

As much as he knew he should keep his cool, he was having a very hard time with it because he couldn't figure out how he'd ended up needing to clean up a broken vase in the first place. They were supposed to be sitting on the damn couch, not fucking around with plastic swards directly beside the stone hearth. So, the second he'd dumped the last of the glass into the kitchen trash can, he strolled back into the living area with his hands on his hips.

"I'm sorry, Daddy!", Peter sobbed before Tony had a chance to say one word. "I didn't mean to break it! I was just trying to get the picture!"

Looking back over his shoulder, Tony tried to determine what the kid was talking about because up until that point he'd just assumed that they two of them had been roughhousing and knocked shit over in the process. Although, once he'd scanned the area where the vase used to sit, it dawned on him. For some unknown reason, Peter had been trying to get the framed photograph of Ben and May down. "Pete...", he sighed out with mild annoyance. It had already been a long ass day and he could feel a headache coming on. "What were you even trying to get it for?"

"I don't know!", Peter sniffled sounding so distressed that all of Tony's prior aggravation melted away. 

After taking a second to clear his head, Tony sent Ned off to wait in Peter's room and then grabbed the picture before sitting down beside his son. "I'm not mad about the vase, Buddy.", he started with because he really wasn't. The vase could be replaced. What had aggravated him was the fact that, apparently, he couldn't leave the two boys alone for any amount of time without them breaking shit. Yet, even that seemed far less pressing now that he had some idea of what had taken place even if he still didn't know why.

"I didn't mean to break it, Daddy.", Peter repeated with silvery tear tracks still staining his flushed cheeks.

"I know, kiddo. You said that.", Tony replied with a sigh as down beside his son and leaned his mildly aching head onto the back cushions. "What did you need the picture for?", he asked. To his knowledge, the kid had never tried to get his hands on the picture before. It was of a decent size and placed prominently in the room. You could see it clearly from where it sat. 

"I just wanted to _hold it_.", Peter rasped and Tony who suddenly remembered that he was still had the frame resting on his knee and handed it over. Then he watched as the boy began to hug it to his chest.

"Are you feeling sad, right now?", Tony asked softly. To have been expecting the day to pass with at least a little bit of grief, it still felt unexpected. The day was almost over and had been filled with nothing but smiles. He'd let his guard down but here he was, sitting beside his son who was nodding his head and squeezing his eyes shut as if that would stop the impending tears. "Hey, it's okay. Come here, Baby.", he whispered and waited for the boy to crawl into his lap and begin openly sobbing. There was a small part of him that wondered what exactly had triggered the heartache but he didn't ask. It was really important. What was important was for him to be there and to be supportive.

That went on for a few minutes, Tony just sitting there holding his crying son until his sobs subsided. "I'm sorry, Daddy.", Peter eventually said as he desperately wiped at his damp cheeks. "I didn't mean to cry."

"You're allowed to cry. You know that.", Tony said softly, wondering where a statement like that would have come from. _Unlike, Howard,_ he'd never chastised his son for showing his emotions. Even before he was his son, he'd never commented on the kid's sensitive nature. He'd respected it. Not that he enjoyed the dramatics or the constant stream of apologies that the kid was always offering but he was glad the boy didn't hold anything back or bottle it up. He knew all too well, what sort of damaging habits that could lead to. _Hell, he was still fighting those particular demons..._ "It's _okay_ to be sad."

"Yeah but today was supposed to be happy.", Peter replied as he continued to sniff and rub at his face. 

"..and it was.", Tony assured with a firm squeeze and a nod of his head. "It still is. When you're ready... we'll call Ned back in here and start the movie back. You can hold your picture and I'll order you guys some pizza.", Tony said as he abruptly remembered there was another child in the penthouse. 

"Okay.", Peter replied before taking a long breath through is still slightly runny nose. "I'm ready."

Tony smiled and kissed his son on his head. "Alright, well, I'll go get him, then.", he said because even though he could have had JARVIS tell the other boy he could return to the living room, there was something he wanted to grab off of Peter's bed so he decided to do it himself. Once he arrived in the kid's room he found Ned sitting on the floor reading some books and looking a little worse for wear. "It's all fine, Ned. No one's in trouble. Your buddy just needed a few minutes to feel better."

"It was my fault, Mr. Stark I took the lightsabers out. I forgot that Mr. Ben bought them for him last year.", Ned replied finally giving Tony the missing piece of the puzzle. It was the reminder of his last birthday, the one he'd spent in his apartment with his aunt and uncle that had tipped the scales. 

"Hey, it's fine. We're going to get some food, watch some more movies and I'll sit with you guys this time, alright?", Tony said to the other boy who then, nodded his head and smiled. Tony smiled back and reached across his son's bed to take hold of, Jojo, the ragged stuffed rabbit and carry it back to Peter who was, as he'd expected, been happy to see it.

"Thank you, Daddy", Peter said as he took it, along with the frame and lightsaber into his lap. Tony looked down at the collection and smiled and sat down in the open seat at the end of the couch, thus sandwiching his son between Ned and himself. Despite the throb that was still building in his skull, he did as promised and sat there through the all of the childish giggles and ate pizza beside then, not once complaining... not even when Ned wiped his greasy fingers across upholstery instead of on the napkin that was right in fucking front of him. 

Shortly after the remaining pizza had been pushed aside in favor of collecting every damn pillow blanket in the penthouse in order to create the ' _the softest, coziest, best bed in the whole wide world_ ' on the floor, Happy walked in with a warm greeting and large paper bag. "Happy! Look at our bed! We're going to sleep in it tonight!", Peter shouted across the room so loudly that Tony had to resist the urge to cover his ears. 

"Oh yeah? Well, that looks... comfortable.", Happy laughed. "Want to come over here in the kitchen to see what I brought with me?", he asked making both boys hurry across the room with anticipation. Once they were both standing beside him, he pulled out a standard-issue, grocery store birthday cake and a pack of generic candles. "I thought that since your daddy dropped your big cake, we might try again with a smaller one. We won't let him carry it this time though.", he teased and Tony rolled his eyes, though he regretted it immediately as it seemed to double the pain behind them. 

"Pizza and cake for dinner?", Peter said with a small smile.

"Looks like it, Buddy.", Tony replied as he dug through the cabinets to collect a few plates. Then, once again, the lights were dimmed and Peter's face took on the glow of the small flame. The Happy Birthday Song was reprised and Peter made his second wish of the evening. "What did you wish for, kid?", Tony asked Happy handed him an entirely too large piece of cake.

"I can't tell you, Daddy, or it won't come true.", Peter replied, looking absolutely aghast. 

"Hmm.", Tony replied with a smile. He'd not really expected that answer. Typically Peter was all about facts. He _enjoyed_ fantasy but he _knew_ it was fantasy. Outside of play, he preferred to stick with facts and reasoning. He was just smart like that. Which made the fact that the boy still wholeheartedly believed in wishes that much more amazing. "Did you wish from last year come true?"

"No. Not yet.", Peter replied with a frown but it quickly bounced back into an excited grin. "...but the one from when I turned six did. I wished I could meet you and I did!"

Smiling softly, Tony took a seat beside his son at the bar. "Well, I for one, am really glad that you made that wish.", he said in earnest. He couldn't imagine his life without Peter in it. Despite the shitty circumstances, learning to love Peter and then being given the opportunity to raise him as his own had been just the push he'd needed to become a better man. _A different man._

"Me too.", Peter sighed out and Tony couldn't decide if it was because he was so full of sugar that he was already starting to crash or if it was a little bit of lingering sadness from earlier in the evening. 

Rather than question how he was feeling, as he would have on any other day, he leaned in and kissed his little boy right on the cheek. "I love you, Buddy.", he whispered as Peter made a show of wiping off his father's affection before returning the sentiment. 

Once the boys had settled back onto the living room floor with a brand new Lego set, Tony and Happy were left alone in the kitchen to clean up. "Thanks for the cake, Happy. That was really nice of you.", Tony said with ease making Happy smile.

"You're welcome. I just couldn't get it out of my head that the kid didn't get to eat his cake.", Happy laughed. "So, I ran out and got one."

"Well, he needed the 'pick me up'.", Tony replied with a smile before explaining how the gravity of the milestone had set in and that Peter had been crying before dinner. "He's a tough, kid but he can only take so much."

"How about you? Are you doing, alright?", Happy asked with obvious concern. "...because you look like shit."

At first, Tony wanted to retort with some sort of witty quip but then he decided he was too tried to deny it. He probably did look like shit. "I'm fine. It's just a headache. Nothing I can't handle.", he assured but the mere mention of the pain had him gritting his teeth and running his thumb and fingers under his eyes. "As soon as they've settled down for bed I can go sleep it off."

Happy nodded his head and look across the large open room towards where Peter was sorting out the Legos out by color and Ned by shape. "How about I hang out with the boys for a few minutes while and you go take something.", he suggested, knowing how quickly his friend's headaches could morph into something more. 

It took no time at all, for Tony to sigh and take Happy up on his offer. As much as he didn't really want to take anything. He was going to have two kids until ten in the morning and he's promised pancakes. "Deal.", he sighed out before hurrying down the hall towards his bathroom medicine cabinet. ...and if he then laid in the dark with his eyes closed for thirty minutes after that... Happy didn't complain. In fact, when he returned to the room feeling marginally better he found that the man had already taken the initiative to send the kids to change into their pajamas. 

With a quick 'thanks' Tony walked Happy to the door before urging the two boys to get into the bed that they'd created for themselves. He thought after the copious amounts of sugar that had been consumed it would be a challenge but it wasn't. They both seemed tired and fell asleep quickly, allowing Tony to return to his own room to hopefully sleep away the remnants of the pain behind his eyes. 

The next morning, Peter woke up first and hurried off towards the master bedroom to wake his dad up. The promise of a special breakfast was not forgotten and Tony reluctantly rose from his bed to follow his entirely too fucking energetic kid into the kitchen. Several attempts later, it became very clear that pancakes were not going to be a thing. The first three were raw in the middle and the next four were burnt while the last attempted batch somehow ended up being both burnt _and raw_ at the same time. Petter giggled at the effort and just before Ned's parents were due to pick him up, the three of them each sat down with a bowl of oatmeal... _with sprinkles on top._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why but I felt the need to post [this picture ](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/718J9AdrrpL._AC_SX425_.jpg) of what I imagine Jojo looks like... 
> 
> Just big enough that its body completely fits in an adult's hand and small enough to be tucked under a child's chin while being fisted.


End file.
